Christmas in the Detective Agency
by Quantity Street
Summary: The Chaotix are preparing for Christmas, and stuff happens while they're doing it. Shortfic. Contains shipping. Because damn it all.
1. Wake-Up Call

It was a misty morning across the suburban district where the Chaotix resided, and the air was filled with a bitter wintry haze. The day was December 23rd, significant because it was just two days from Christmas Day. Most of the typical households had lights ups on their windows and roofs, and the ones which didn't at least had the interiors decorated for the festive season.

In the Chaotix office, however, the rooms were still void of any seasonal charm. It wasn't because they were scrooges, mind. They had other things to concern themselves with, like the surge of cases that always came up at this time of year due to thieves taking advantage of Christmas shopping, and paying the bills for the increased use of heating due to the cold weather. Charmy, being the excitable child that he was, was now becoming agitated by how close the day he could open his presents was drawing. He wanted the office to look nice for Santa, too.

"Guys!" he whined as he fluttered about the kitchen. "When are we gonna get some decorations for Santa! He won't like it if there isn't a tree and a stocking when he arrives!"

"We are going to town later Charmy, please calm down in the meantime."

Charmy was content with the answer and flew to his room upstairs, although he wasn't any more relaxed. Espio, putting away the cereal box that Charmy had left out on the table after eating breakfast, sighed audibly and thought about the situation. Last Christmas was the first the Chaotix had as a team. Him and Vector had still been naïve and frivolous with their funds. As such, when the Holiday season came, they were unprepared and left with a disaster. Not wanting to be burned again, they'd agree to cut down on the luxuries and save some funds for the second time. This year, they were going to make sure that Charmy had a decent Christmas, if not exuberant.

The plans were already in motion. Hidden away in Espio's room was a wardrobe with a small stack of presents, all from the various friends they'd met between the year on their various adventures. All of them were for Charmy, the adults were expected to get presents only for the ones they cared for the most. But even with that secured, it wouldn't be complete without the reptiles making their own contribution. Those were thoughts that would have to be acted on another day. Today was the time to make things a little nicer around the living space. Espio broke away from the cupboard handle he had been gripping for five minutes and made his way up the stairs.

As there was no window on the landing connecting all the upstairs rooms, the stairs were mostly in the dark. He had to tread cautiously so as not to trip. As he neared the top, he paused to listen to the commotion. He could hear Charmy in his little bedroom, laughing as he amused himself with some cheap toy soldiers. He could tell they were toy soldiers because of the way Charmy was sounding out explosions. From behind another closed door, he could only hear snoring. That was where he wanted to go. He switched on the small light that gave a sliver of illumination, and walked towards the door with various notes stuck on with tac. As silently as possible, he pushed down the handle and peered in.

Sprawled out on the bed was his boss, Vector. He was still snoring away, so he presumably hadn't heard Espio come in. Where his left hand was were papers pinned to the mattress. Where his right hand was, a pencil lay close by. He must have fallen asleep calculating the payment for the rent and bills the past month. Espio was suddenly caught off guard by a gust of icy wind, and then realised; Vector was asleep with no heating on and no duvet to cover himself.

Now feeling all the more guilty for needing to wake Vector up, Espio approached the slumbering Croc. Instead of simply shaking and shouting as planned, he pulled his own body close and gave a careful cuddle. Vector wasn't a bad man by any means, from Espio's perspective. He had his vices which annoyed him a lot, sure. He could be gluttonous and greedy, which was a detriment in their circumstances. He could be extremely selfish if he wanted to, which often closed him to others. He could be lazier than Espio would like too, although how much of that was just Espio's discipline kicking was up for debate. But when Vector was nice, he was dedicated to it, and it was moments like this that made Espio appreciate how much Vector was willing to work and sacrifice to support his friends. His family.

"Vector…" Espio whispered softly into his earhole. Vector must have sensed something beforehand because his snoring has come to a stop.

"Vector…wake up…" Espio whispered again. This time, he rubbed Vector's side, simultaneously soothing him as Espio tried to rouse him from his sleep.

"Charmy wants the decorations up now…you need to look after him while I go and purchase them…"

"Nrrgh…"

A sudden slow groan startled Espio. He rapidly backed off from Vector and stood to attention. The Crocodile sluggishly raised his body and yawned loudly as he stretched. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he turned his head to where he'd heard the low noise before, and sure enough he found Espio waiting for him to come to his senses.

"Mornin' Esp'" he greeted his friend pleasantly but groggily. Even though Espio preferred everyone to be up early, he never usually bothered with making the others get up unless he felt there was a pressing urgency. Vector gathered that making the kid placated was pretty urgent.

"You might as well go down stairs and get ready, Esp'. I'll catch up, don' worry."

Half an hour later, Vector came trudging down the stairs and into the main office. Espio had put on his gloves, shoes and a long black scarf that felt silky to the touch. He was holding several reusable bags, and there was a little safe box on the coffee table which was open. Setting a budget in his mind, Espio was ready to go out after he'd spoken to Vector. Vector, however, spoke first.

"Hey, you forgot somethin'!"

"Huh? I think you'll find that I have made all the necessary preparations for the trip, Vector. I have the bags, and the savings, and…are you listening?"

Espio has noticed that Vector had gone to a nearby cabinet and started to trawl through it for something. Espio really hated when he was disturbed during a conversation. He was about to give Vector a piece of his mind when Vector pulled his hands out triumphantly.

"Found 'em!"

He span round to face Espio. In one of his hands he clutched a pair of earmuffs. To be exact, a pair of black earmuffs with pink Japanese kanji on either side.

"Oh…those."

Espio's cheeks flushed as he realised that Vector had only meant well, even if he thought of it as unnecessary.

"I wanna make sure you're all wrapped up warm. You'll catch pneumonia or somethin' if you get cold!"

Vector approached Espio to put the earmuffs on. The buff figure of his boss was imposing over Espio's own small and lithe figure, but he knew that Vector wouldn't hurt him. Not deliberately anyway. As Vector lowered the earmuffs down over Espio's earholes, a sharp sound made Espio alert and curious. He could have sworn Vector just took a sniff when his head had been close to him, When he looked up once he adjusted the earmuffs Vector didn't say anything or even looked funny, so Espio just shrugged it off mentally.

"Speaking of staying warm" Espio began to retort, "I brewed you a coffee, it's sitting in the kitchen and should still be hot."

"Oh, thanks Esp'! I sure do like…"

"And another thing, Vector. Whatever you do while I'm gone, make sure you cover yourself. I noticed that you had no heating on this morning, and without your duvet on as well! Do you know how worried I would be if you fell ill?"

"Erm, alright. You don't really have to worry about me, y'know."

Silence briefly fell between the two reptiles. Espio was being more protective than usual this morning, and neither of them had failed to notice it now. Espio resumed the conversation with sharpness.

"If Charmy asks what I'm doing, tell him I'm meditating."

"Isn't that what I always have to tell 'im?"

Espio gave a serious, but still warm, glare. It was then that Vector recalled to the fact that Espio always meditated anyway.

"Oh. Yeah, sure, I'll tell 'im that."

"Thank you."

The two of them headed to the front door. Vector put his arm around Espio roughly as he pushed the door open to the outside atmosphere. The air was frigid and the ground covered with a sheet of snow, but he didn't care. He wanted to see Espio off for the town. He looked down at Espio and smiled warmly, to which Espio responded with a small smile himself. He then let go of the Chameleon so he could exit the doorway and start trekking. As Espio's silhouette became progressive smaller to Vector's eyes, he gave out one last shout of goodbye and waved enthusiastically. Espio turned to see the farewell, and waved back in bright spirits. He then pressed on and faded out of sight. Vector didn't go inside yet though. He just stood there in the doorway, cheerily thinking to himself about the chance he'd get to impress Espio later. He had one last thought which he noted aloud before he retreated back into the warmth of the office.

"Espio smells really nice in lavender."


	2. Decorate the Town

The nearby town was large and claustrophobic. No one really knew why it wasn't classed as a city yet. Approaching the urban sprawl, Espio prepared himself for what lay ahead. Even though it was only mid-morning, the lights were already blaring out and dazing his eyesight.

'Ridiculous, what a waste of electricity' he thought as the snow gave way to cold hard pavement.

He was certainly not alone right now; there must have been hundreds of fellow shoppers, dashing around for presents and food in preparation for Christmas Day. Espio had his own itinerary to follow, and his first stop was the card shop next to the bakery, He had arranged for Charmy to go over to Amy's house while he and Vector bought his present tomorrow, so he might as well get Charmy to give out cards to his friends while he was there. Stepping into the card shop, the smell from next door hit him like a ton of bricks. Aside from the usual scent of fresh bread, there was an overpowering waft of fruit bread and mince pies. He had to fight his hunger to continue into the shop.

Inside, there were less people than he thought there would be. He took this as a small blessing considering how he didn't like crowds. He tentatively looked down the aisles for a box of cards that was relatively cheap, and came across a pack of 20 with stereotypical wintry cottages on their fronts.

"Twenty should be enough to cover everyone that would be at Amy's, I think."

He grabbed the box and began to head over to the till. Carefully stepping past other people in the shop, he pulled out a five dollar note to get the ordeal over with as quickly as possible. However, before he got to the front, something else caught his eye. He turned his head and saw that he was now next to the individual Christmas cards for specific people. This was enough to remind him that he hadn't bought a card for Vector yet. Sighing, he stopped in his tracks and took a good look through the cards. Most of them were directed at family, which was useless to him since he'd not seen his own family in years. His eyes strayed over to the one section for non-relatives, where he saw one particular card.

This card wasn't extravagant. On the outside, the design was simply two teddy bears standing with some glittery snow around them. The bears were sharing a single scarf between them, holding each other close as they looked around at the snow with a warm flush to their faces. Above the picture, a message read "Christmas wishes to a special someone". Espio, interest piqued, took the card off the shelf and looked inside to make sure the content was appropriate. There was a small piece of prose, and it read like this;

"You make me happy all of the year, and I just want to tell you that I appreciate all that you've done. So let's share this festive day with nothing but joy in our hearts."

Smiling, he shut the card and resumed to the till to pay.

Back at the office, Vector was making sandwiches with slices of ham while Charmy hovered beside him.

"Vector, aren't you gonna make some sandwiches for Espio too?"

"He won't be back for lunch. He'll probably get 'imself somethin' while he's out."

Vector picked up the butter knife to start spreading.

"Where's he gone then?"

"To town."

"What for? Huh, why do you look so shocked?"

In the time it'd taken Charmy to ask Espio's intentions, Vector had realised that he wasn't supposed to divulge that information. He quickly tried to cover his tracks.

"Uh, for meditation, what else!"

"Why would wannna go to the noisy dirty town to meditate when he usually goes to the meadow for that?"

"Because he's gonna do some grocery shoppin' while he's there!"

"But you went grocery shopping yesterday…"

"Well, I ate all the groceries after!"

"…I'm not that dumb"

Having laid the ham on the bread, Vector accepted defeat and turned to Charmy. When he thought about it, there wasn't really any reason to keep this secret, not like the present anyway.

"He's gone to town to buy the decorations. You'll be helpin' 'im stick'em up on while I go and get us a tree. I think he wants you to write out the cards ready for when you visit your friends tomorrow, as well."

Charmy's expression turned from curiosity to excitement as he grinned widely and buzzed around the room. Vector, not wanting to deal with this, quickly intervened and grabbed Charmy by the jacket.

"Charmy, have your lunch first, then you can go flyin' off."

Meanwhile, Espio was at the big department store located in the heart of the town. Here he wasn't so lucky with the crowds, as almost everyone around him was in a frenzy of doing last minute shopping. He was in the home furnishings department, for the usual Christmas trimmings. His first port of call was for some garlands to hang along the ceiling. He found a pack of four which were styled like natural plants right by the entrance to the area, so he picked it up and put it in the basket he simultaneously picked up with his tail. He'd already got drawing pins, so he didn't need to worry about getting those.

"Excuse me, sir" a nearby store worker hailed Espio's attention. "Won't you need some sort of ladder to hang those up? I know we sell a nice range of ladders for that sort of thing."

Espio shrugged. "I do not require a ladder when my own natural abilities suffice, but thank you for the gesture."

He looked at the woman's face. She was now pretty perplexed at his comment, and hesitating to herself as to what to do next. He took the initiative.

"If you would be so kind as to tell me where the mantelpiece selection is, I would be much obliged."

After having travelled his way across the store and up the escalator to find the rest of the Christmas section, he came across the decorative bits and pieces he was looking for. He saw a sleigh carved out of wood and a decorative bell of brass, both a neat size to fit on a shelf. He moved along further, and came across various festive themed candles and incenses. He picked out three of the candles and at least a dozen or two incense sticks. Moving around the corner for the final parts of his list, he ran into a variety of stockings.

"Oh! Mustn't forget those." Espio said to himself as he picked out three.

One was small and orange, with cartoony felt reindeer on it, another was silvery with subdued blue trim and decorative curls sewn in, and the other was a deep golden colour with red trim and little jingly bells hanging off it. It was Charmy who wanted to have one, but he felt it wouldn't hurt if he and Vector got in on the fun as well.

He then resumed his original course and went to the tree trimmings. He didn't want lights because of the electricity already being a finite resource in the office, but he could certainly get some tinsel and baubles. The tinsel he chose was a relatively thin strip of gold with silver stars sprouting off it at various points. He had a harder time choosing the baubles because most had already sold out by then. In end, quite relevant to the familial spirit of the Chaotix, he picked out some red baubles, each one with a silver or gold picture of a musical instrument on them. Before leaving to pay, he decided to pick up a couple of decorative accents as well. These were a feather-textured robin to pin onto one of the tree branches and a plain gold star for the top of the tree.

"I think I might get myself a salad for lunch once I'm done with this…" he paused, thinking carefully about whether he wanted to go through with his next choice. "And maybe get some mince pies for all of us." With that, he set off to finish off the trip.


	3. Tree Chops Glisten

It was now evening, and the three Chaotix members were finishing off their dinners. Vector had ordered in rice and prawn balls from the local Chinese, and Espio's mince pies served as desert. They were all sitting at the worn out, red armchairs when Vector put down his empty plate and leaned over to Charmy.

"Charmy, remember to thank Espio for the lovely food, okay?"

Charmy nodded and thanked Espio in his usual cheery manner. Espio met him with a rather lukewarm stare.

"Why thank me? You were the one who paid for the Chinese. You even made sure to get me my favourite meal from there!"

"Yeah, but you were the one who got the pies, and we didn't even beg for 'em!" Vector stood up following this statement, and made his way over to the front door, grabbing the axe that was resting against the wall along the way.

"Anyway, thanks a bunch Esp'. Now I got some food in belly I can go out and find a tree from that dealership we looked up."

Charmy watched as Espio sharply put his plate of half-eaten mince pies on the coffee table and swiftly followed Vector. Vector was prepared to go out in his normal attire, but Espio would have none of it. Just as Vector began to pull the handle of the door to leave, Espio grabbed his tail with his own and yanked him back, making Vector stumble.

"Oi! What gives, Espio? You could have been hurt if that axe had gone in your direction!"

Espio reached around Vector to grab something off one of the coat hooks. "If you're going to go outside, at least take my scarf with you."

Against Vector's protests, he smoothly set about wrapping the scarf around Vector's neck, removing the chain in the process and making sure the knot was tight enough that it wouldn't come loose by normal movement. It didn't look as good on Vector as it did on him, but that wasn't something he cared about particularly.

"There, now you should be a bit snugger out in the snow."

"You're really frettin' about me bein' warm lately."

Vector looked mildly unenthused as he gave a glance at the scarf. He didn't feel like this was necessary at all, but he wasn't about to throw Espio's concern in his face. His mood lifted when he addressed Espio one final time.

"Just make sure you get the house ready for Santa while I'm gone, or we're gonna have one unhappy bee to contend with!"

They both chuckled after this, when Vector suddenly leaned in and gave Espio a small nuzzling on the cheek. He didn't think anything of it, but Espio stopped stiff and couldn't help turn flush with affection. Vector walked out the door in the time it took Espio to shake it off. Vector grinned and gave a thumb up as Espio leaned against the doorway and waved, before he started his own journey through the snow. Espio smiled softly and went inside.

Trudging roughly ten miles in the thick blanket of snow, Vector eventually came across the pine tree farm that he had looked up in the listings. The entrance looked serene. The sign above the gate looked glittery with the remains of snowflakes fallen and the string of multi-coloured fairy lights haphazardly woven across it. In bright red text on a bottle green background, Vector could read out the name of the farm, "Forest Hill". He had no time to stand and stare though, his limbs were getting numb. He walked through the gate and stepped into a yard of sorts, with nothing but bare ground which was soaked by the snow. He looked to his left side and saw a station not too far away, so he called out.

"Hey, anyone 'ere?"

At first, the air remained still with nothing but the sound of the icy wind blowing. After a few moments, it was suddenly disturbed by the sound of clanging coming from the station. There was a fair amount of grumbling and swearing interspersed with it. Finally, a tall and stout man stumbled out, he looked like a bear of some sort.

"Sorry about the wait, had to find the key to the money box before coming out!"

He walked over to greet Vector with a warm handshake. Vector flinched before returning the gesture. After withdrawing his hand, he cleared his throat to speak to the bear about his predicament.

"Look, pal. I just want a nice small tree to get back to the office with. Can you point me to where the trees are?" He put his hand on his hip impatiently.

"Ah, you might have some problems finding any tree at all now. Everyone's already been at them weeks beforehand, if there's any at all they'll be at the very edge of the farm, over that way!" the bear pondered as he pointed toward the north-easterly direction."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I'll find one" Vector grunted as he picked up his axe again to start the trek over to the last patch. "I ain't fussy about how pretty it looks, so there must be one that's been snubbed. " He looked over his shoulder at the farm owner. "I'll make sure to pay when I've got it."

"That's fine. Good luck with your search!" the bear called as he headed back to the warmth of the station.

"Thanks." Vector simply replied.

"And there's Knuckles' card done!"

In the office, the remaining two Chaotix members were busy with their own chores. Charmy was speeding through the card writing while Espio was currently hanging up the garlands on the ceiling. Charmy, picking up another blank card, started writing again while speaking to Espio facing away from him.

"Shouldn't I be putting up the ceiling things Espio? I can fly all around real fast!"

Espio pushed the drawing pin in to secure the second garland on the ceiling. "You can fly, but I can see clearly where the pins are going. You are not well adapted to seeing things in 180 degrees."

Charmy listened as footsteps travelled from the ceiling to the wall, and then from there to the floor. Espio was picking up a third garland to hang up. Having finished off Rouge's card, Charmy decided to help Espio by dealing with the stockings and the hardier mantelpiece feature.

"I've done a lot of cards already, so I'll put the stockings over the radiator and the sleigh on the shelf!" he buzzed as he flew into action and made a beeline for the bags of shopping Espio had brought in earlier.

"Alright then, just make sure to finish off the cards later tonight, you'll need to give out as many as you can while at Amy's house." Espio was back on the ceiling, ready to push up another pin. "Perhaps the decorations will be done before Vector gets back in, so he can be impressed with your efforts."

Vector had underestimated how large the farm was. After 45 minutes, he was still passing stump after stump, with no healthy pine tree in sight. Tired, he stopped to have a break and dropped his axe to the ground. He spotted a particularly large stump to sit on. As he tried to head over to it, he tripped over a rock obscured by the snow, and landed face first to the soft ground. He groaned as he lifted his torso back up again.

"This really ain't going well…" he murmured, gathering himself once more. He crawled over to the stump and heaved himself onto it.

Looking around at his surroundings, he could see fields and fields of brown spots where trees had once dominated the landscape. It was late, so the sky was a wintry dark blue with stars speckled about it. Looking far into the distance, he observed a small village next to an old water mill, and he thought it was something straight out of a dream. Further away still, the Christmas lights of the town blinked on the horizon. The smell of pine and fresh snow was filling his nostrils with a sense of enigma and loneliness. Vector sighed, with a gush of air coming out as a visible vapour due to the temperature.

"Espio would love this place, so quiet and ideal for meditation…" He looked thoughtfully up at the stars. "Give him a little space while I'm fumin' over owed debt and playin' around with Charmy…" He looked over to the village, and then faced forward, his eye ridges furrowed. "Nah, that ain't a plan. I'd bring him over 'ere myself, and we'd sit on this li'l stump together." He jumped off the stump and beamed. "Yeah, and we could just cuddle up all night, takin' in the romantic view before we fixed our gaze at each other an' leaned in to…" He stopped himself abruptly. His tail was wrapped around his own torso and his arms were in an embrace with the air.

"Eheh, guess I got carried away! Might wanna get another view."

He twisted his body around quickly to get the village out of his sight. When he readjusted to his position, he gazed over the new fields. It looked much the same as the other fields. That was, until the corner of his eye briefly flashed upon something green and tall in a field on his right. All alone sat a single growing pine tree, waiting for someone to take it to a good home.

"Yes! Finally!"

Vector scrambled about to retrieve the axe he's carelessly dumped nearby. Laying his hand on it after a sweep of the vicinity, he snatched it up and began to sprint towards the tree.

"Looks about ten minutes away. It'll just take one good swing to get it down, and then I can get back to payin' for the dang thing and get home to sleep!"

He gasped as the cold air choked his breath, but he pressed on. He was determined to get back to his team mates as soon as possible.

By now, Charmy should have been asleep. It was quarter past one in the morning and he was visiting his friends tomorrow. He couldn't help but feel concerned for Espio though, so he fluttered carefully downstairs to see how he was doing. Espio was in the main office, burning another incense stick to try and keep himself at ease, although it didn't seem to be working from Charmy's perspective. Hovering next to Espio, he looked at him with an expression of empathy. This caught Espio's notice, but he didn't turn his gaze away from the smoke of the incense.

"Espio, it's really late. Shouldn't you be in bed like me?"

"I'm keeping watch."

"Watching from here won't find Vector quicker. You gotta sleep! Vector'll be back soon!"

"I'm not sleeping." Espio turned his head away from Charmy.

Feeling defeated, Charmy shrugged and started to slowly fly back to his room. Just as he got past the front door, there was a large bang as the door was forced open and a sharp gust threw him out of the air.

"Heya, Charmy!"

Vector went over to the grounded bee and gave him a rough noogie. Charmy giggled, struggling to break himself from Vector's grip. After the giggling had subsided, he gave his own greeting and hugged his fatherly figure. Vector returned the hug back with one arm, the other holding the tree still.

"You're up late! You must 'ave been worried a whole lot about your dear boss!"

Charmy's glee turned to nervousness. "Not really, Vector. I was trying to get to sleep in bed just five minutes ago."

Vector was partly crestfallen, but mostly curious. "Huh? So, if you weren't waitin' for me, why…"

"He was." Charmy interrupted, pointing towards the office. Vector followed the point and saw wisps of smoke gently floating out of the office. He knew that Charmy wouldn't light anything, he'd punish him if he did. That left just one conclusion, and not one he really wanted to face alone. When he stopped looking at the office, Charmy had already left to go to bed. His hand had been forced, so he carefully crept into the office, trying not to alert the chameleon. Inevitably, that failed.

"Seven hours." Espio remarked frankly.

"Sorry, Esp', I wasn't plannin' to be that long. It was just further away than I thought it was. And do you know how long it took to find a tree?

"Do you know how much I was worried about you?" Espio stared straight at Vector's eyes, making the message all too clear.

"Well you shouldn't 'ave been. I'm the toughest member 'ere, I can take on the snow for that long!"

"You're an ectotherm!" Espio slinked over to Vector, raising his voice. Vector backed off a little, it was rare he heard Espio flare up like this. "Wandering out there for so long could have killed you! You could have gone missing for all I knew, and then…I don't know what I'd do."

He slumped down, tearing up. He felt completely empty thinking about the possibility of losing his beloved Crocodile. Vector simultaneously felt distressed at seeing his favourite Chameleon in such a state. In response, he kneeled down and put his arm around Espio's shoulder gently.

"Look, Espio, you've 'ad a rough night. If you get some rest, I can deal with decoratin' the tree and getting' everythin' together for later, 'kay?" He smiled weakly to coax Espio into obedience, but Espio didn't take the bait.

"You've been out seven hours straight looking for that tree. You're the one who needs sleep."

"But you and Charmy did the rest of the office, and it looks great! It's my turn to handle the jobs!"

"No."

Vector shook his head. He knew that he wasn't going to win this one now. With his quick wit, he formulated a compromise in his mind.

"Alright then, how about we do it together then?"

He stood up and stretched. Espio, out of his stupor, followed suit. He was still glancing at Vector suspiciously, suspecting something amiss with Vector's new idea. Vector went over to the shooping bags near the wall and brought out the required decorations. He dumped them unceremoniously at Espio's feet, startling him. Taking advantage of this moment of weakness, his tail swiftly manoeuvred around Espio's torso, before dragging him into his own body.

"And while we're doin' that, maybe we can…get to know each other a li'l better, hmm?"

Vector flashed a slight grin and gazed warmly down at his friend. Espio didn't return the look, but his scales turned pink with a mixture of embarrassment and excitement. He wasn't going to argue with Vector on this idea. He simply wrapped his own tail around Vector as he was lead towards the tree, which was waiting to be integrated into the homely surroundings of the office.


End file.
